Our This Week in Metal post collects our thoughts on music released in or around this week in the music world. We cover mostly metal, but we consider other genres to allow our writers poseur flexibility. Follow us on Instagram too!
We hope you’ve enjoyed all of our reviews for 2024!
Metalligator's Chomping Commentaries
The opener on Liminal Animals sounds like a statement of fatigue in its lyrics: repeated words from previous songs, the nature of sound as “Moving objects / The music they make” all the while distinct eras of Ulver clash in intuitively written songs. Good luck trying to classify this animal.
With a long and spicy Hungarian title, XII: A gyönyörü álmok ezután jönnek is by all counts a folk album. It uses folk music as a basis for its rhythms in bright and airy compositions, filled with a large variety of vocals. It’s also a metal album. And it's also Thy Cat's twelfth album. Did you see that coming?
Cosmo's Chaotic Curveball
Part of the joy of being a music reviewer is discovering new bands, because any new band could be your new favorite act. Are Mandroïd of Krypton one of the next greats, or should this sarcophagus be left to drift aimlessly throughout space?
Anti-Peat Perplexing Position
If you’re into psychedelic stoner metal and bands with names that sound like they moonlight at medieval jousts, The Ghost of Badon Hill by Sergeant Thunderhoof is for you. With a title as riveting as a wargaming brony, this album promises trippy vibes, and no curveballs about its genre. War from a blunted mouth.
Bobo's Brainless Bearing
From groovy rhythms to never-ending joy in the darkest riffs, Purulence Gushing from the Coffin feels like a celebration of death metal’s rotten core. The pacing of the tracks ensures no moment overstays its welcome, a rare achievement in this style. Sniff deeply of putrid riffs.
Wait, who wrote these ones???
The second a band chooses to use a Lewandowski painting for their cover, they set a certain expectation. Ever since his association with Bell Witch’s seminal funeral doom album, Mirror Reaper, this decision implies a certain confidence in quality. Detroit’s own Pillar of Light should know this. With the quiet-loud formula brought to bear on their debut album, Caldera, they make the case that they earn this monolithic cover through sheer emotional heft. It just might blow your top off.
Psychedelic death metal, to put it bluntly. Often the genre is aesthetically dependent or rooted in how many Gilmourisms the guitarist deploys per solo. No matter how wet the reverb, nor how boomer the bends, these two approaches miss the fundamental underpinning of psychedelic music. But what if the riffs were really, really dank?
What has our fledgling staffer gotten themselves into this time? A bag of mushrooms? Oh for heaven’s sake… at least it’s the weekend…
